The Melrose Messenger

City Budget Released; City Council Budget Process Begins

By Ellen Putnam

The City Council officially began its Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) budget process on Monday evening when Mayor Jen Griograitis addressed a joint session of the City Council and School Committee and presented her proposed budget for the City Council’s approval.

The Appropriations and Oversight Committee of the City Council, on which all eleven city councilors sit, will meet on Monday and Thursday nights for the rest of May and into June to hear from the heads of each department and ask them questions about their proposed budgets. The schedule for this year’s budget hearings can be found here.

The City Council’s role in the budget process is to approve, reduce, or reject each fund or department budget. They cannot add or move money from one department to another, and they cannot dictate how money should be spent within each budget area.

At the end of the budget process, the full City Council will vote on the budget as a whole. Once the Appropriations and Oversight Committee has voted on a budget item, the City Council cannot return to that individual item.

“This is my third budget,” Mayor Grigoraitis noted in her address, “and the first one without cuts, thanks to the override, which Melrose residents resoundingly supported this past November.”

“The Fiscal Year 2027 budget restores many of the cuts made in recent years,” she went on, “stabilizes our city workforce and the important public services on which our residents rely, and builds a sustainable funding structure for forecasted increases in the costs of employee benefits, public infrastructure, and contractual obligations.”

Grigoraitis outlined a number of additions residents can expect to see in the upcoming budget, including a new Animal Control Officer position shared with Wakefield and Stoneham; increased staff availability to assist residents with securing tax abatements and social services they are eligible for; and more funding for capital improvements and repairs in the regular budget.

At the same time, the City Council will be voting to approve, reduce, or reject proposed free cash expenditures. Free cash is the money that is left over after the fiscal year is over, and good fiscal practice reserves free cash for one-time expenditures. Melrose has $5.5 million in free cash from FY25 that can be spent this year.

So far, the City Council has unanimously voted to approve:

• $20,020 for poll pads and a label printer for upcoming elections;
• $50,000 to the Melrose Cultural Council for arts grants; and
• $25,000 for public safety and DPW support for Chamber of Commerce events such as Summer Stroll and Victorian Fair.

Additionally, the Appropriations and Oversight Committee has voted to approve the following expenditures, but they have not yet been approved by the full City Council:

• $170,000 for a sidewalk plow;
• $880,000 for DPW vehicles;
• $865,000 to fill this year’s snow and ice deficit;
• $244,944 to the schools for Medicaid reimbursement;
• $10,000 for bike racks.

The following expenditures will be discussed in the Appropriations and Oversight Committee at an upcoming meeting:

• $9,000 for tax impact notice mailing;
• $75,000 for an updated Housing Production Plan;
• $70,000 for an updated Downtown Parking Study;
• $30,000 for a new Welcome Home Veterans sign;
• $150,000 to the Affordable Housing Trust;
• $50,000 to Memorial Hall for boiler replacement and HVAC controls;
• $12,193.20 for vape detectors at the middle school;
• $72,180 for high school band uniforms;
• $44,296.32 for basketball and lacrosse uniforms and a scorer table;
• $710,000 for Ell Pond Park design;
• $400,000 for the Lebanon Street TIP project design;
• $20,000 for school signage; and
• $3,000 for a census mailer.

If all of these free cash expenditures are approved, the city will have approximately $1.6 million left in free cash for this year. It is common practice for some amount of free cash to be allocated to the city’s stabilization funds (savings accounts), so that will likely be included in an upcoming appropriation request.

Of the free cash expenditures that are currently proposed, the $150,000 for the Affordable Housing Trust may be controversial within the City Council. The City Council voted to reject a similar expenditure last year, in part due to the city’s financial situation at the time. Members of the Affordable Housing Trust spoke to the City Council earlier this month to talk about their work and what they hope to accomplish with the fund, including creating additional deed-restricted affordable housing in existing buildings in Melrose.

The appropriation for repairs to Memorial Hall may also be controversial, since the budget for Memorial Hall itself became a hot topic during last year’s budget process. The Metropolitan Area Planning Council is currently working on a study to determine how Memorial Hall could be administered going forward, and those results are expected soon.

And $710,000 for Ell Pond Park design may also become a controversial topic. The project, which is expected to cost $10 million in total, was in the top spot in this year’s Capital Improvement Plan - which raised criticism from some residents when the plan was released. The project would be based on a feasibility study from 2022, although it would likely see some changes based on public discussion and feedback. (The most recent public engagement on the project was in November 2020.)

While the project does not have any identified funding sources, outside of the proposed free cash appropriation, having a design completed would potentially make Melrose eligible for federal or state grant funding for the project - and given that part of the project would involve new stormwater systems and flooding mitigation, it could be eligible for a number of stormwater and climate readiness-related grants.

Residents who wish to share their opinions on the budget, free cash allocations, or any other topic can contact their city councilors or speak during the public comment section of any City Council or Appropriations and Oversight Committee meeting.

We will be covering the city budget process as it proceeds - stay tuned for a deeper dive into the details!

Posted May 14th, 2026